Curdel Changoo, 12, a seventh grader at Hope Academy Charter School, tells it this way: There is a boy who is his cousin's brother's cousin who came to visit and took Curdel's bike to the boardwalk where it got stolen last year.
Curdel's mother told him about this new place at 21 Main St., a 7,500-square-foot space full of donated bicycles, where kids can earn their own bike by working 15 hours learning bicycle repair. So far, he's worked 10 hours at Kerri Martin's Second Life Bikes.
Martin, 38, is working hard at her latest job operating a not-for-profit community bike shop where people donate their used mountain bikes, cruisers, trick BMX bikes, and tot-sized bikes.
Kids can earn a bike or work one hour for a seat or tube, two hours for a tire.
Adults can find bike parts they need or pick out a bike that needs some repair and pay about $45 to $100 for Martin to get it road ready.
Markim King, 14, an eighth-grader at Asbury Park Middle School, says he first came into the community bike shop to pump up his tires for free during the summer. Now, he's working to earn a bike, has put in two hours, and stopped in last Tuesday to tell Martin he couldn't work that day but would be back the next.
No problem, Martin gestured as she repaired a bicycle for a college-aged girl off to school in Philadelphia the next morning, and directed children to find a tube, a rim or straighten up a work space.
"It's a good place. The people who come in here are respectful," Markim said on his way out.
"It's a lot about establishing boundaries here," Martin said. "We don't trade bikes. We don't buy bikes. People donate bikes. Kids can earn them. Adults can buy them."
Last Tuesday, she was telling one child he probably needed a 6 or 5 Allen wrench for his work. A man came to look for a seat and recycled tires. A teenage boy signed up to work two hours for a tube and a tire the following Saturday. Another man came in to talk about efficient pedal strokes.
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"Bikes are learning tools and we're getting children skilled," Martin said. "The beauty of this place is we can survive right now. I'm not getting rich but I'm not
starving. The model works. We're taking a commodity that people need and offering it at a price and still have a charity aspect."
starving. The model works. We're taking a commodity that people need and offering it at a price and still have a charity aspect."
Martin, who lives in Ocean Grove, grew up in Freehold, went to the College of New Jersey (then called Trenton State College) and went to Germany, where she got into cycling. She's never owned a car and doesn't have one now.
When she came back to the United States, she worked in information technology in New York City, but after 9/11 started working as a mechanic in the bicycle recycling scene in the city.
She moved back to New Jersey and worked for a bicycle shop in Fair Haven and then Brielle Cyclery, which opened a second shop on the Asbury Park boardwalk in 2007.
She started meeting with children on Mondays to let them earn donated bikes that were kept in a two-bay garage at Holy Spirit Church. She called that program the Bike Church.
By April 2009, she was ready to leave Brielle Cyclery and open Second Life Bikes, first at the Jersey Shore Rescue Mission on Memorial Drive until that group needed its space.
She put her bikes in storage for the first three months of 2010 and then met up with Robert and April Kaprelian of Ocean Grove who are leasing her their large vacant building at the south end of Main Street.
Second Life Bikes is open 10 to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, but that's just the start of things.
The shop is lively many evenings, when Martin and her adult volunteers get the repairs made, sometimes until midnight, sometimes until 2 a.m. She does a special bike ride every Tuesday afternoon and held classes for adults and children this past summer. She has six bikes at home.
Jeremy Margolias, 30, of Asbury Park, director of operations of the Windmill Corp., works at the Neptune Windmill across the street and brings Martin food just as she helps his workers get bikes.
"I try to make sure she stays fed," he said. "She works so hard."
Tyler Mathis, 12, of Neptune, said she was in her first of five work hours last Tuesday for repairs Martin made on her bike.
Mathis came in with her brother, Bruce, 11, who is working for a bike, and De'Shon Parkman, 12, of Neptune, also working for a bike. All three were directed to put training wheels on a bicycle Michael McBride bought for $15 for his son Elijah's fifth
birthday the next day.
birthday the next day.
"When will I see you again?" Martin asked Bruce when the three were finished.
"Tomorrow?" Bruce Mathis suggested.
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